Editor’s Note: RCR Wireless News goes all in for “Throwback Thursdays,” tapping into our archives to resuscitate the top headlines from the past. Fire up the time machine, put on the sepia-tinted shades, set the date for #TBT and enjoy the memories!
Dish gives up some spectrum after bidding entities get unwarranted discounts
Dish Network is giving up some of the spectrum that went to its bidding affiliates during the most recent spectrum auction. Those bidding entities benefitted from discounts the government gives to small businesses, but later the Federal Communications Commission decided that those discounts had been applied improperly since the companies were in fact controlled by Dish Network. The spectrum retained by the FCC will be auctioned again, probably in the second half of 2016. The spectrum is valued at $3.5 billion, and if it ends up selling for less, the Dish affiliates will be expected to pay the difference. Yesterday, the two companies wired a $413 million penalty payment to the FCC. Dish said that one of the companies, Northstar Wireless, is expected to be granted licenses covering approximately 3.7 billion megahertz potential customers covered, while the FCC will retain licenses covering about 690 million megahertz pops. The other company, SNR Wireless, is expected to be granted licenses covering 2.9 billion megahertz pops, while the FCC will retain licenses covering approximately 629 million megahertz pops. A megahertz pop is the number of megahertz in a given license times the number of people in the area covered by that spectrum. … Read more
Sprint plans major cuts in spending, jobs
Citing an internal memo circulated this week, The Wall Street Journal reports Sprint, the U.S. carrier owned by Japan’s SoftBank, is planning $2.5 billion in cost cuts over the next six months, which will include job reductions and a hiring freeze. The report said the memo, from CFO Tarek Robbiati, indicates such extensive cost-cutting measures “inevitably will result in job reductions. The main thing to consider when requesting to spend money is to take an owner’s mindset by treating every dollar as if it were your own.” Sprint CEO Marcelo Claure hinted at the move in comments made last month at the Goldman Sachs-hosted Communicopia event. His comments addressed cost cutting, network improvement and gaining market share. Claure said Sprint has already cut $1.5 billion in costs under his tenure and, looking forward, “We’re committed to basically doing the same or more. We definitely have to take cost out.” Wells Fargo Senior Analyst Jennifer Fritzsche said the announcement “is not overly surprising given the company’s weaker margins [vs.] the peers, the amount of the cut is a significant amount. To put it in perspective, $2.5 [billion]represents [one-third] of the company’s operating costs. As we have written in the past, Sprint is very much a ‘show me’ story. While we view this as a positive step in the right direction, we believe the market will give it very little credit for such a move until we see tangible evidence of costs coming out of the model. There are opportunities on the roaming and special access side that we believe could see some movement in 2016.” … Read more
T-Mobile US gets hacked (sound familiar?)
T-Mobile US has been hit by hackers in an attack that includes personal identification information for approximately 15 million people who applied for postpaid services or device financing between Sept. 1, 2013, and Sept. 16, 2015. The carrier noted those impacted could include people who did not become T-Mobile US customers. The attack occurred through one of Experian North America’s business units and included names, dates of birth, addresses, Social Security numbers, potentially alternative forms of identification like a drivers license number, and information used in T-Mobile US’ credit assessment. Experian claims the hack did not include any payment or banking information and that the hack did not breach any T-Mobile US-housed data. T-Mobile US CEO John Legere in a letter on the carrier’s website, said it is working with Experian “to take protective steps for all of these consumers as quickly as possible.” “Obviously I am incredibly angry about this data breach and we will institute a thorough review of our relationship with Experian, but right now my top concern and first focus is assisting any and all consumers affected,” Legere said. “I take our customer and prospective customer privacy very seriously. This is no small issue for us. I do want to assure our customers that neither T-Mobile’s systems nor network were part of this intrusion and this did not involve any payment card numbers or bank account information.” … Read more
Huawei sees growth in Middle East small cells
Chinese vendor Huawei said it’s seeing significant growth opportunities in the Middle East region with small cells projects, the company’s VP of international media affairs for EMEA, Ronald Sladek, told RCR Wireless News. “Many operators within the region are already active in small cell activities and are currently in the planning and deployment stages. Currently the most common deployment scenario is indoor, but with increasing capacity and coverage requirements, both indoor and outdoor scenarios will be equally vital in the future,” Sladek said. “So far Huawei has worked on more than 180 small cell contracts worldwide, many of which have been in the Middle East. It will remain an important part of our portfolio in the coming years.” According to the executive, Huawei has worked on approximately 17 commercial networks across the company’s Middle East business unit. … Read more
Facebook eyes satellite-based internet for Africa
WASHINGTON – With more than a billion users in the developed world, Facebook is now setting its sights on the next billion users who, while currently unconnected, could now be connected to the Internet via an ambitious satellite-based Internet project. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the project, which is part of Facebook’s Internet.org and being conducted with satellite provider Eutelsat. Zuckerburg wrote: “I’m excited to announce our first project to deliver Internet from space. As part of our Internet.org efforts to connect the world, we’re partnering with Eutelsat to launch a satellite into orbit that will connect millions of people. Over the last year Facebook has been exploring ways to use aircraft and satellites to beam Internet access down into communities from the sky. To connect people living in remote regions, traditional connectivity infrastructure is often difficult and inefficient, so we need to invent new technologies.” Zuckerburg specified that as part of the deal Eutelsat will launch a geostationary satellite called AMOS-6 by 2016, providing Internet coverage to large areas of Sub-Saharan Africa. According to Facebook’s Internet.org, once the satellite is built and in orbit, people within range will have access to an app called “Free Basic,” which gives users Internet access without paying service providers for data. … Read more
A new reality for Microsoft
Microsoft is facing reality in the smartphone world even as it launches another high-end device. Priced at $549, the new 5.2-inch Lumia 950 is powered by Qualcomm’s top-of-the-line Snapdragon 808 processor and sports a 20-megapixel PureView camera. For Microsoft, the most important part of the new Lumia is the Windows 10 operating system. “We are moving from a strategy to grow a standalone phone business to a strategy to grow and create a vibrant Windows ecosystem that includes our first-party device family,” Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said in an e-mail to employees this summer. That same email told employees that roughly 7,800 jobs would be cut, with many of the cuts coming in the mobile device unit Microsoft purchased from Nokia. About 15 months after closing on the purchase, Microsoft wrote down the value of that business by $7.6 billion. Nadella said that Microsoft will narrow its focus to three customer groups: businesses, value phone buyers, and existing Windows fans. That leaves out the consumers who comparison shop for high-end smartphones, and who generate the most revenue for carriers. … Read more
Check out the RCR Wireless News Archives for more stories from the past.
